Dana Hood

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Dana Hood

Nia Black Belt Teacher

Denver, Colorado, United States

The first time I stepped into a dance class I was 3 years old and I remember saying, “When I grow up I want to be a dance teacher and have a dance studio.” As much as I loved dancing, my earliest memories of it were there was a right way and a wrong way to do it and it was all about performing perfectly. I danced most my childhood becoming “great dancer”.
After graduating and moving into the work world, dancing fell away. I went to college, worked many jobs and became an entrepreneur, opening a doggie daycare and then 3 years later a doggie boutique. I love working with dogs and have always appreciated the way they are so fully themselves. They love their bodies and authentically express emotion and love everyday.
Working 12+ hour days everyday, my body began to cry out for something to balance my energy. It was then I was told about Nia and began dancing again. But this dancing wasn’t about right and wrong and perfection. The perfection is how connected I feel to my body, how connected I feel to my life.

Nine years, 7 Nia and 3 JourneyDance trainings later, I teach almost everyday and can truly say I am on the path the 3 year old predicted. This dancing path is about expression, healing, play and joy! As a teacher I don’t perform, I facilitate an experience. When people step into my class, I give them permission to be exactly where and who they are in that moment. I show them how to move, from the inside out, and how to trust and connect to their bodies in a new way. That deep body connection leads to a deeper connection to Heart, Confidence, Desire and Power. Join me in the dance I love and experience for yourself what it feels like to step into a new way of living in this body!